Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for to .
![[Security camera still showing a dark figure carrying what looks like a jerry can walking casually from the sidewalk to the door of the Edson Mosque.]](https://www.canadianatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/edson-mosque-arson.jpg)
Security footage of the arsonist who set fire to the Edson Mosque, while people were still there.
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[] Court order to stop government funding for non-Catholic students at Catholic schools on hold
Sigh. I mean, no one’s really surprised by this: Layh’s decision really didn’t give enough time in any case, so with the inevitable challenges… yeah, it was destined to be delayed. That doesn’t mean that anything has been won or lost yet, though. We just need to wait for the appeals process to play out.
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[] Alberta mosque set ablaze in ‘brazen’ arson
I would have thought that it should go without saying that no matter how much you may disagree with Islam, trying to burn down a mosque – with the worshippers still present, no less – is beyond unacceptable. But this is 2018, and some atheists were actually cheering this on social media.
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[] Homophobe Bill Whatcott Charged Under Sec. 319 of the Criminal Code
Another major hate crime charge laid! Colour me surprised. Whatcott’s had it coming, though. (One thing that bugs me about most of the reporting on these charges: No, Whatcott was not charged for going to a Pride parade as a “gay zombie”. That just happens to be what he was doing to cover the thing that really got him charged: he gave a fake name and group and went to the parade in disguise to distribute gross and hateful flyers with pictures of anal warts and dead bodies, and ranting about
God’s law
andhomosexual inspired oppression
. So no, being a “gay zombie” is not a hate crime.) -
[] Mosque shooter doesn’t deserve consecutive life sentences, defence pleads
Amazingly, this case continues to get even more depressing with each new news release. Emotionally, the idea that a hate-fuelled motherfucker should rot for the rest of his life in prison feels good. But humanistic rationality and empathy force me to admit the possibility that Bissonnette really was just very, very sick, and deserves treatment… not to be discarded into a pit and forgotten about. It’s not my place to decide, but 25 years without the possibility of parole seems punishment enough… and maybe a chance for Bissonnette to be rehabilitated.
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[] Covenant Health walks ethical tightrope between Canadian, canon law on assisted death
Very interesting read, diving deep into the realpolitik compromises a hospital has to make to satisfy the callous and insufferable policies imposed by bishops while still operating at least nominally as a health care facility.
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[] Atomwaffen, an American Neo-Nazi Terror Group, Is In Canada
Holy shit, another prominent Nazi has been unmasked as Canadian… and this time it’s one with some seriously dangerous connections.
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[] Leader of Far-Right Group Arrested for Invasion of VICE Office
About a month ago, there was an item about members of far-right hate group Atalante Québec storming the offices of VICE Canada to intimidate them after VICE published an unflattering piece about them. They tried to pass it off as a “joke”… the police didn’t buy it.
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[] Catholic Trustees are worried about TWU Supreme Court decision. Here’s why:
Here’s an interesting fallout from the Supreme Court’s Trinity Western University decision that I admit didn’t occur to me. The TWU case was about the rights of the students… but what about the teachers? Specifically, in Catholic schools and hospitals across Canada, employees are required to agree to “Catholicity clauses” that mandate behaviour according to Catholic principles… basically the same as TWU’s “community covenant”.
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[] ‘Ideological sexual clubs’: Alberta gay-straight alliance law faces court challenge
There’s a big fight a-brewin’ in Alberta over gay-straight alliances – specifically, over whether parents have the right to be informed if their child joins one. Alberta’s NDP government chose to protect the kids, and passed legislation banning schools from informing parents if their kid joins a GSA. 25 religious schools, led by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (remember that name, they pop up later) is calling GSAs
ideological sex clubs
, and demanding schools be allowed to out kids to parents. -
[] What does Trinity Western’s Supreme Court loss mean for the summer jobs attestation?
Very interesting piece that gets really technical, and considers conflicting expert opinions on the potential fallout of the TWU decision.
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[] Position Paper #95: The Refusal to Provide Health Care in Canada
I’m not sure exactly when it was published, but this is the most recently update to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada’s policy page, and it’s a really nice, short, but well-written primer on the status of refusal-to-treat across Canada, both with regards to abortion and medical assistance in dying. Also check out the appendix which lists refusal and referral policies across Canada.
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[] Former Neo-Nazis Tell Us How They Finally Left the Movement
Interesting insights into what makes extremists reconsider and return from the dark side. Recurring themes are having children… and meeting people they are supposed to hate, only to discover they’re just nice people, too.
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Kudos to David Climenhaga for following the money here, and connecting the dots between the people and organizations targeting LGBT kids in Alberta.
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[] Canada Just Became The 2nd Country in The World to Legalize Marijuana
I didn’t realize we were only the second country in the entire world to legalize cannabis. But it actually seems to be true. While there are several countries that legalize it for medicinal or research purposes, and several where it is officially illegal for recreational purposes but never enforced, and several with patchwork legalization internally (including the US), only Uruguay has completely legalized it (although foreigners are banned from buying).
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In relation to the Edson Mosque, I stopped in a Cafe for a break in Edson, where the old buzzards gather in the mornings and afternoons. Although I am an old buzzard, I am not a local to them, so I was able to sit and listen. There was a general feeling that the Muslims are not part of the community, but a group that keeps separate and just happens to live in Edson. So they are “an out group” living within a general peaceful community. Nobody cares what happens to them. It was just a bit of excitement in the town.